High school checked for leak during outage

DUBOIS — Authorities checked Northeast Dubois High School, 4711 N. Dubois Road Northeast, for any type of gas leak after an odor was noticed during a power outage Thursday morning.

An odor was noticed after electricity at the high school went out shortly before 11 a.m. Students were evacuated to Dubois Middle School as part of an emergency protocol and units of the Dubois Volunteer Fire Department were called in at 11:12 a.m.

Department Public Information Officer Zach Eichmiller said the odor was determined to have come from a gasoline-powered small engine that was being worked on in a shop area. Eichmiller said the odor probably spread after air handlers lost power and doors were opened as part of the evacuation.

Firefighters and Indiana Natural Gas personnel went through the school with multi-gas detectors and found no problems, according to Eichmiller.

Meanwhile, Dubois Rural Electric Cooperative crews pinpointed the cause of an outage that affected 226 customers. Pat Lichlyter, Dubois REC’s manager of operations, said a tree fell on lines and kicked out a reclosure device — a mechanism that restores power during an outage — at a Dubois substation.

“We were very fortunate that it did not tear the lines down,” he said.

Students were brought back to the high school after authorities confirmed there were no safety returns. Electricity had also been restored by that time.